← English Literature syllabus

United StatesEnglish Literature

Unit 6: Longer Fiction or Drama II

6 dot points across 6 inquiry questions. Click any dot point for a focused answer with worked past exam questions where available.

How do contrasts that run across a whole work, between settings, plots, or characters, generate meaning?

Topic 6.2 Structure: explain the function of contrasts within a longer work, including contrasting settings, parallel plots, and juxtaposed scenes.
A focused answer to AP English Literature Topic 6.2 (skill category STR), covering large-scale contrasts in a novel or play, parallel plots and juxtaposed settings, dramatic irony, and how to analyze a sustained contrast rather than note a local one.
10 min answer →

How do metaphor and allusion work in a novel or play, where they may run across a whole text?

Topic 6.4 Figurative language: explain the function of metaphor and allusion in a longer work, including a controlling metaphor or recurring allusion sustained across the text.
A focused answer to AP English Literature Topic 6.4 (skill category FIG), covering how metaphor and allusion function in a novel or play, the controlling metaphor and the recurring allusion, and how to analyze figurative language that runs across a whole work.
10 min answer →

How do specific recurring words, phrases, and motifs build a work's meaning over its whole length?

Topic 6.5 Figurative language: explain the function of specific words and phrases in a longer work, including a recurring motif and patterned diction.
A focused answer to AP English Literature Topic 6.5 (skill category FIG), covering the motif and patterned diction in a novel or play, how repeated language builds meaning across a work, and how to analyze a motif rather than note a repetition.
10 min answer →

How do you organize a full literary argument essay so its paragraphs follow a controlled line of reasoning?

Topic 6.6 Literary argumentation: organize a literary argument essay so that body paragraphs follow a line of reasoning and demonstrate control over the elements of composition.
A focused answer to AP English Literature Topic 6.6 (skill category LAN), covering how to organize the body of a literary argument essay around a line of reasoning, how to write paragraphs that build on one another, and how compositional control supports a sophisticated argument.
11 min answer →

How does the overall structure of a novel or play, the arrangement of its parts, shape its meaning?

Topic 6.1 Structure: explain the function of structure in a longer work, including how the arrangement and division of its parts shapes interpretation.
A focused answer to AP English Literature Topic 6.1 (skill category STR), covering how the overall structure of a novel or play functions, how its division into parts and its sequence shape meaning, and how to analyze large-scale structure for the literary argument essay.
11 min answer →

How does an object, image, or place become a symbol that carries meaning across a whole work?

Topic 6.3 Figurative language: identify and explain the function of a symbol, an object, image, or place that carries meaning beyond itself across a longer work.
A focused answer to AP English Literature Topic 6.3 (skill category FIG), covering what a symbol is, how an object or place gathers meaning across a whole work, the difference between a symbol and a one-off image, and how to analyze symbolism for the literary argument essay.
11 min answer →